The present invention relates to a tool for opening up fiber bales.
Loose fibers are usually stored and shipped in form of strongly compressed bales which must be opened up before the fibers can be subjected to a subsequent manufacturing operation, such as cleaning, carding, or the like. It is known to use for this purpose a tool in form of a roller having a shaft that can be rotated by a suitable drive, and which carries axially spaced blades having saw teeth on their periphery. These saw teeth extend from above between the interstices of a grid and engage fibers of the bale to remove them from the bale. A known tool of this type has its saw tooth blades arranged so that they tumble i.e. they are mounted on the shaft at an angle which differs by 90.degree. with reference to the axis of rotation. The removal of fibers from the bale takes place in the entire zone between the bars of the grid, and the purpose of the tumbling arrangement is to increase productivity per unit of time. However, the tips of successive teeth on each blade of this known roller have a rather small spacing and the height of the teeth is also small. This means that the distance between the leading and trailing flanks of circumferentially adjacent teeth is also relatively small, with the result that in practical operation only a low rate of production can be achieved.